Finally some good news!

[Schneed10]

Daseal, I disagree with you on the relative importance of Smoot. Walt Harris came in and did right nice when Springs went down. Don't forget, he was a starting CB for a while before he busted up his ACL in 2003. He started for the Bears and the Colts before that knee injury, and he was a first round pick of the Bears in 1996, 13th pick overall. The Redskins signed Harris to a deal with incentives based on playing time last year, knowing that they might lose Smoot. Harris is a hell of a corner, he's just been forgotten about because Peyton Manning overshadowed the D in Indy (had you heard much about Marcus Washington before the Redskins got him?) and because he had a busted knee.

Smoot is great and I love him to death, will be sorry to see him go. But Pierce is much more important on the D. Like Matty said, the dude is absolutely brilliant in football 101. You see him calling out adjustments before the snap all the time, running up and slapping the D-line's ass telling them to slide left, slide right. That's him recognizing formations and offensive tendencies thanks to film study and a diagnosing what he's seeing really quickly. You never saw Trotter doing that stuff with the Skins, and that likely was a big reason why the D was terrible. The Eagles have Dawkins to make those calls, that's why Trotter is successful in Philly, he doesn't have to think. We need Pierce to be the QB of the defense.

Now, Barrow filled that QB of the D role when he played for Williams previously. He is another real smart one. But Barrow's football intelligence doesn't do you much good if his knee won't let him on the field.

We need Pierce much more than Smoot.